A Major Connection (2 page)

“Oh my God. Could you be more of a pain? A cute pain, but still,” she said to the smiling dog as they drove back to her sister’s house. While Jane visited the folks in Raleigh, April had signed on to house sit and take care of the dog. She liked Lobo—or at least she
used
to—and she needed time to figure out what she planned to do with her life.

A flash of Gunnery Sgt. Robert Thorn replayed itself in her mind’s eye, and she snarled at the dog again. Lobo couldn’t care less, sprawled out in her backseat and hanging his massive head out the window.

God. Thorn had been a literal thorn in her side for months. She’d noticed him right off, of course. Even in a sea of green uniforms, he stood out. The guy was seriously huge. He had the size and build of a pro-wrestler, and he had to be six-three or bigger, because he dwarfed her. The gunnery sergeant had a sneer he wore for officers and authority in general, though from what she knew of his reputation, he could be counted on to get the job done. Force Recon Marines had a natural cockiness due to the rigorous training and sheer will it took to work in that unit, but Thorn stood out even among those badasses.

It didn’t help that his sneer totally turned her on.

As a female officer in a world dominated by men, April had always needed to be stronger and tougher just to be thought of as average. She’d once dated a fellow Marine. That hadn’t ended well, so she’d made it a policy not to go out with her peers. She’d certainly never fraternize with those outside of her pay grade, putting her career in jeopardy. Yet as the years passed, she’d felt something lacking. The civilian men she’d dated didn’t cut it. Most of them couldn’t fathom why she’d chosen her job, and the ones that could always felt they had something to prove. True alpha tendencies turned her off, because those men tended to try to steamroll her without regard to her thoughts.

That domineering, take-charge attitude only worked with her if tempered by compassion and respect for her independence. In addition, that toughness had to come from a man physically and mentally powerful. She’d met plenty of the buff types, but mentally she outweighed them all.

The Marine Corps had been a great fit for her. At first. As the years wore on, the constant deployments and long hours took their toll. The sacrifices demanded of her started to feel too heavy. Though she loved her Marines and her job as a logistics officer, when her ten year mark had come around, she’d known she had to make a decision.

It hadn’t been easy, but she knew it was the right one. And so, over a decade after she’d first taken her oath of office, she’d put in her terminal leave papers and made a step toward her uncertain future. She would no longer be Major April Soames. Trying to get a feel for her new life, she now answered to
Ms.
Soames.

It hurt to let go of a past she’d for the most part enjoyed. But the knowledge she’d never again have to iron a uniform overjoyed her. No more six a.m. PT sessions, where they ran for miles and did unending calisthenics. No more log runs or obstacle courses during heatstroke conditions. No more saluting and dealing with asshole higher ranks. She could now say what she thought when she wanted.

And hopefully she’d have no more lonely nights because she didn’t trust men not to mark her off their “to do” lists. She’d heard the whispers, knew there’d been bets about who could tag the
Major Babe
. She hadn’t let it bother her. Or at least, she’d tried not to. But the truth was, she wanted to be taken seriously in her job. And damn it, she wanted a boyfriend she could trust who’d understand her. A Marine would have been an ideal companion.

Someone hot, seductive, and demanding who’d give her some much needed sex. No one should have a dry spell lasting as long as hers. Two years was two years too many.

Once again, her thoughts turned to Gunny Thorn. Now
that
man sparked something inside her. She liked her men on the confident, forceful side. Thorn put the A in aggressive. She had no idea what he was like in his personal life, if he had a girlfriend even. He didn’t wear a ring, so no wife. But for all she knew, he could be a total player. With that square jaw, sky-blue eyes, and rock hard body, he could pretty much have any woman he wanted.

She groaned as she pulled into her sister’s driveway and resolved to stop thinking about him.

“Come on, Lobo. Let’s get you something to eat.” She parked and got out, then opened the car door for him.

Wagging his tail and smirking at her as only Lobo could, the dog leaped from the car and darted to the front door. She let them both in and saw him go straight for the water dish.

“Of course you’re thirsty. You ran half a mile to Satan’s house. What is your deal with him, anyway?” She’d been warned the dog would try to make a break for it by the last sitter Jane had hired. For some reason, Lobo wanted to be near that crabby, autocratic giant of a man. Or at least, near his garden.

April made herself dinner, watched some mindless television, then took Lobo for a leashed walk down the beach—the one great thing about watching Jane’s place. Jane, like Thorn, lived in Emerald Isle near the beach. Though Thorn’s house had been a street over from the beach, Jane looked right over the ocean. Only a small stretch of sand sat between her and salt water.

As April enjoyed the evening air and the sand between her toes, she ran into Matt Sayers, a handsome vacationer enjoying some time with his parents a few doors down.

“Hey, Major Soames.” He had a nice smile. Short blond hair, green eyes, and a nice enough build.

Oh boy. She’d used the word
nice
twice to describe him. He hadn’t yet annoyed her or attracted her to distraction, which according to her friends meant she wasn’t into him. But she could be. He didn’t wear rank, didn’t have a girlfriend, and had thus far been respectful in their limited dealings with each other.

“Matt.” She smiled back at him. Perhaps she should go against her usual type and ask him out. Something to stem her summer boredom at least and hold her anxiety about her future at bay. She had so many issues about her life, and—

“You look great, as usual.” He gave her an appraising onceover. “How would you like to go out with a civilian tomorrow night? And by civilian, I mean me. Maybe hit a bar or two?”

The idea held appeal. Something to shake up her normally ordered little world, something different that she could still control. But at a bar where she might run into some of her Marines?

She knew asking him to stay in might send the wrong message. Matt was cute but not someone she planned on jumping into bed with. An image of a sneering Gunny Thorn came to mind, and she hastily wiped it away. “I’d like that, but I’m not really into the bar scene. How about we do dinner and a stroll on the beach afterward instead?”

“Sounds great.” He did have a nice—
handsome, not nice
—smile.

They walked together before he asked, “So how long have you been in the Marines, Major?”

“It’s April, Matt. Not Major…anymore. I know, once a Marine, always a Marine.” A credo she firmly believed. “I just started my terminal leave today, so I’m practicing before I’m officially a civilian.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

She sighed, then seeing no one around, let Lobo off his leash. The fool dog barked at some approaching seagulls then splashed his way into the water. “It’s a good thing, but I’ll miss it.”

“So why did you get out?”

“Lots of reasons.” None of which she wanted to get into with a stranger.

“Should I be saluting you? I mean, you said today was your last day, but the day’s not over yet.”

She chuckled. “I don’t think that’s necessary. But you do have to call me April.”

“I can do that.” He gave her a subtle glance and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I can do a lot of things. But only if you’ll let me.” He winked. “I live to serve.”

She liked that he found her attractive and knew to step lightly. “A funny guy, just my type.”

“Then you’ll love me. I write sitcoms for television.”

“No kidding?”

They watched Lobo play while they chatted about his work on the West Coast.

“I’ve been meaning to come out and visit the folks for a while. Glad I finally did.”

“Me too.” She meant it. “It’s getting late. I’d better get Lobo in before he swallows half the ocean.”

“That is one big dog.” Matt shook his head. “You’re braver than I am.”

“He’s family, what can I say?” She couldn’t help comparing Matt’s response to the fact that Thorn hadn’t seemed to mind dealing with the dog.
Ack. Get out of my head, you big Neanderthal.

Lobo bounded over to them then made sure to shake his coat free of water, drenching them both in the process.

Matt gritted his teeth. April swore.

He blinked at her. “I guess you really are a Marine. You sure swear like one.”

She grinned. “What can I say? Lobo has that effect on me.”

They parted ways, and she took Lobo home, rinsed and dried him off outside, then settled in for the night. With her luck, she knew she’d dream about a certain obnoxious Marine with arms like cannons.

But since it was her dream, she decided to add some fantasy to the mix and closed her eyes. Envisioning Thorn in nothing more than a tiny bathing suit, she ordered him to strip down to nothing, then crawl on his hands and knees begging her to forgive him in the best way he knew how. With his head between her spread thighs, his mouth working its own magic while never saying a word.

Thorn banged on her door the following morning at eight a.m. sharp. He knocked for a while, knowing she most likely wouldn’t be awake. Rumors at work had it that Major Hotness wasn’t a morning person. She had a sweet tooth, an intolerance for fools, and no bend in her whatsoever. Her way or the highway, though she could also admit to being wrong on occasion.

Thorn could work with all that. Especially when
that
came packaged in shorts and a tee-shirt showing off a body that made his mouth water.

Barking then swearing filtered through the cracked-open windows in front. Fool woman should know better than to leave her windows up overnight.

She yanked open the main door, leaving only the screen door to separate them. Seeing him there, she gaped. “What the hell are
you
doing here?”

“I’ve got a problem.”

“More than a few,” she muttered. “Lobo, shut up!”

Lobo whined and backed away, then came back shoving against her, his tongue hanging out while he pushed past her to thrust his nose against the screen.

Thorn held his hand close for Lobo to sniff, which excited the dog into a new frenzy of dancing and wagging.

April glared at the dog.

April.
He’d been thinking about her like that since she’d admitted to leaving the Corps. And damn if his dreams hadn’t been hot enough to wake him out of sleep with a hard-on the size of Texas. Sure he’d gone without a woman for a few months. The battalion’s op tempo had been crazy the past year. But he’d been celibate for longer stretches of time and not had such vivid fantasies of a woman before.

“Cut it out,” April snarled when Lobo nudged her knees, almost knocking her over.

“Whoa. Easy, Major. I come bearing gifts.” Thorn held up a cardboard tray holding two coffees and a bag of pastries. Even he had a tough time resisting the call of the sweet smells coming from the bag.

She didn’t blink. “What do you want?”

Hardball then. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice about this.”

She mumbled something about the word nice he couldn’t quite make out. “What do you want, Gunny?”

“Restitution.”

She just stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” He could wait her out. All damn day if he had to. To his bemusement, he realized that sparring with her instilled the same sense of fevered anticipation he experienced when going on a mission. But this time he wouldn’t be trying to rescue anyone or pin down a horde of rebels. He meant to outflank and seriously bed the woman scowling at him.

“Restitution? For what?”

“We’ll start with my dead tomato plants. And the beans, the mangled peppers… And hey, how about the planters Lobo ruined, as well as the sprinkler system that cost an arm and a leg to install? It’s got sections chewed up. Shall I go on?”

She groaned and gripped her hair by the temples.

He almost would have preferred her with bedhead and an unpleasant morning face, something to make her appear less goddess-like and more human. But even roused out of bed she looked gorgeous, sexy, and—hell, he’d just admit it—fuckable. Her long honey-blond hair reached the tips of her breasts, hidden behind a short, ugly, terrycloth robe. But that hair looked soft and silky. Her lips were rosy, parted on a swear, so of course he immediately imagined them wrapped around his cock.

Stifling that thought took effort, because she glared at him with eyes that struggled to be blue or green, or maybe both. Teal, he thought, and wondered if she knew her eyes were the exact same color as the crisp, clear waters off Key West, one of his favorite places in the world.

It wasn’t like Thorn to wax poetic. Hell, the last woman he’d been head over heels for had ditched him for a guy she’d been crushing on forever. He’d made peace a long time ago over losing Maria to an idiot Marine who didn’t deserve her. Even the last woman he’d been seeing, a pretty engineer with a big brain, a terrific sense of humor, and a yearning for kids—all traits he shared and admired—hadn’t gotten to him on this level. Something about April Soames put his back up, his cock up, and his temper to simmering.

He gave her a baleful look. “If you’d rather I just sent you the bill or took you to court, I’m game. Hell, we’ll throw Lobo in the pound and call it even.” He turned, as if he meant to walk away.

The screen door slapped him in the ass before she bodily dragged him inside with her.

“Fine. Come in, come in.” She shut the door behind him. “You, stay.” That said, she darted down the hallway.

He glanced at the dog, who looked back at him and cocked his head. “She talking to you or me?”